DECISION TO COVER UP
At the time the footage was discovered, the executive director and principal were overseas attending a course on protecting children from abuse.
The vice-principal sent the executive director the footage over WhatsApp, and she viewed it together with the principal. The trio then had a video call to discuss what to do.
The vice-principal and executive director then conspired to delete the footage from their phones.
The vice-principal was supposed to join them overseas for the course on Nov 17, 2023. She was instructed to delay her flight to later that day so that she could instruct Teo not to go near any children and monitor him while he worked.
The trio returned from the course a day early to deal with the matter. When they met back in Singapore on Nov 21, 2023, they decided to raise the matter to the chairwoman of the school’s management committee.
This meeting took place on Nov 22, 2023 and lasted about an hour. During the meeting, the chairwoman was informed of Teo’s acts for the first time.
The vice-principal used her phone to show the CCTV footage, and the executive director sought the chairwoman’s decision on whether to report the matter to the police.
The executive director said there would be implications on the preschool if a police report was made: parents and the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) would have to be informed, and the police would interview the staff about how long the acts had been going on.
The executive director further said that the victim was asleep and may not have suffered any impact from Teo’s acts as the girl was not aware of them.
She suggested settling the matter quietly by asking Teo to resign, instead of reporting it to the police.
When the chairwoman asked if the victim’s parents needed to be informed, the executive director said if they were, then the school would have to manage their reaction as well as the reaction of other parents.
She said that the good name of the preschool would be tarnished and that it was likely many parents would withdraw their children from the preschool.
She added that the school may have to close down if the matter got out of control, and again said that the victim was not really affected by the acts.
The chairwoman asked if there was no impact on the victim.
She also questioned whether they would want to cover up the issue as Teo, a Malaysian, was a Singapore permanent resident, and terminating his employment did not prevent him from continuing to work in Singapore and committing similar offences in the future.
The vice-principal said that the impact on the victims and parents would be worse if the matter was reported to the police than if it was settled quietly.
The chairwoman said Teo’s acts could still be registered in the victim’s memory and if there were adverse effects, it was best for there to be early intervention.
The vice-principal then said that if she were the mother of the girl, she would rather not know what Teo had done to her.
The principal, who had broken down in tears, said that she did not want the children to be withdrawn from school and acknowledged a lapse on the preschool’s part.
The meeting concluded with a consensus to monitor Teo as the chairwoman needed time to make a decision.
The next day, Nov 23, 2023, the chairwoman told them she had decided not to make a police report and to dismiss Teo. She would then consider the case closed.
The executive director, principal, vice-principal and a fourth staff member present all agreed with this decision. The vice-principal also asked if a non-disclosure agreement was needed.
Later that day, the executive director spoke to Teo and he chose to resign.
The trio considered the matter closed, with the executive director sending a message to their chat group reading: “Hopefully and prayerfully the issue is closed and we learn from this.”
Safeguarding policies of the preschool made it clear that individual staff members should inform the police if there was abuse by a staff member, and that they could report the matter directly to the police without the approval of management, if required by the law.
REFORMATTING OF CCTV SYSTEM
Following this, the chairwoman of the school’s management committee had another discussion with leaders and changed her mind – she decided the matter had to be reported to the police.
She informed the executive director of this in a text message on the evening of Nov 24, 2023, and the message was passed to the principal and vice-principal.
The trio agreed to tender their resignations, as they had earlier discussed, because they did not feel they would be able to cope with the fallout of the revelations.
The executive director and vice-principal also raised the possibility that the chairwoman might change her mind about reporting if they all resigned together.
In a discussion that did not involve the principal, the executive director and vice-principal also discussed whether the CCTV footage could be overridden.
On the morning of Nov 26, 2023, the trio met in the office and printed their resignation letters.
There, the executive director pressured the principal to agree to override or delete the incriminating CCTV footage.
The vice-principal then reformatted the hard disc of the CCTV system on the executive director’s instruction.
They then went to their meeting with the chairwoman, who confirmed her intention to report the matter to the police. The meeting ended when the principal started crying and hyperventilating, and an ambulance had to be called for her.
The police report was made on Dec 2, 2023, and Teo was arrested on Dec 4, 2023.
When police raided the preschool and checked the CCTV system, all three of its hard discs had been reformatted. The police forensic team managed to recover the footage, including the video of Teo’s acts on Nov 9, 2023.
ECDA fined the preschool S$26,200, restricted new enrolments and shortened its licence tenure from 36 months to six months.
ECDA also took action against four members of the preschool’s management, and had barred three of them from working in the preschool sector since April 2024.
All four staff members have been removed from their posts by the preschool’s operator, the authority previously said.
